Housing Aspirations and Housing Achievement: The Relocation of Poor Families

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Abstract
Corroborating an earlier study by Wolf and Lebeaux, structured interviews with 24 fatherless families and 44 complete families in a predominantly black area slated for clearance, reveal there was little attachment to the neighborhood despite the existence of family contacts there. However, relocation appears to have been more disruptive for fatherless families. A disproportionate number of them were interested in permanent public housing residence, but follow-up interviews and public housing authority records show they were less likely to achieve their desired housing than complete families. The data suggest that people will tend to behave according to their expressed intentions when the situation is salient, but their ability to do so is subject to external constraints.